Let's begin with a bit of technology humor.

Recently, Amazon announced they had saved millions of dollars switching to Linux. Despite the fact that Amazon's switch was from UNIX and not from Microsoft, the spinmasters from Redmond nonetheless felt the need to leap in and say:

With Linux, customers "end up being in the operating systems business," managing software updates and security patches while making sure the multitude of software packages don't conflict with each other...That's the job of a software vendor like Microsoft."

Speaking as someone who works in an all-Microsoft shop ... HA!

Managing software conflicts and security patches is the life of an all-Microsoft shop. Almost daily, issues of endless Windows 9x*, NT and 2000 patches and conflicts between applications consume valuable time we could be spending making our customers happier.

If managing software conflicts was your job, Bill... we'd fire you.

The sad thing is that by pitching this corporate "spin" relentlessly, Microsoft lost the chance to tout its true advantages. It is the integrated tools, the reams of available software, and (often) speed which lure developers to the Microsoft camp. When a Microsoft shop is working, things really *sing* ... even if the duration of that song is often short.

And perhaps that's the real problem. Microsoft's advantages are debatable advantages --- just as debatable as the advantages of the Macintosh user interface or the Linux open source philosophy. But rather than open an intelligent debate, our friends from Redmond chose to sell their latest Big Lie.

And ended up looking like idiots.

- The Centaur